


Waiting In the Sky

by motherhyucker



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Space, Awkward Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Jealousy, Kissing, M/M, Romance, how to: stop crying over sweet boys, your honor i'm soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 01:00:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18713272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/motherhyucker/pseuds/motherhyucker
Summary: Mark follows the rules to the best of his abilities, but there are always exceptions.





	Waiting In the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> omg mayhaps i'm finally posting something instead of staring at it for three hours and giving up. anyways enjoy my space nerd fixation, sponsored by my playlist I made for this instead of being useful! 
> 
>  
> 
> btw gwen i love you very much thanks for helping me get back into writing!!!

Mark isn’t usually the type of person who easily gets upset, in fact, he’s pretty low-key. Throughout his time as captain of the S.S. Cherry Bomb, he’s mellowed out from the dramatic teenager he used to be. Even Chenle and Jisung (bless their hearts) rarely spike his blood pressure any longer, which probably kills a good 90% of their fun (they of course and never deterred and have moved on to taunting Renjun instead). 

Still, on the ship, there is a commonly accepted rule that if any issues between the crew rise up, the first thing on the agenda is to go to Mark (after at least one round of boxing it out, but hey, he’s not a miracle worker). Of course, as Mark in fifth grade was distraught to learn, there are always exceptions to rules. i before e except after c, the plural of moose is not mooses, and Donghyuck drives Mark up the fucking wall. 

Mark has a theory that every day since they met seven cycles ago, the dumbass alien wakes up in the morning and plots on how to ruin Mark's life (Renjun and Donghyuck would both object to him calling Hyuck an alien, no, boys, he’s not speciesist just dumb). 

Today’s evil plan is one of the most devious things Donghyuck has done to date, and the sad part is that he most likely doesn’t even intend on riling Mark up. (that’s even worse!) Mark shouldn’t be this distracted while he’s driving, but having Donghyuck doing THAT next to him keeps him from focusing. 

Donghyuck’s main offense at this moment isn’t looking way too hot to be real like it almost always is, but instead, it’s his very obvious flirting with Jaemin. It’s not like Mark’s jealous... He doesn’t own Hyuck or anything. No matter what Taeyong and Johnny tease him about, they’re not entirely co-dependent. Hyuck is a free person allowed to flirt with anyone he wants. It’s not a problem it’s just... off-putting. 

But now that the two of them have been talk/flirting for at least an hour or two, Mark might just rip his ears out and die. Right as he’s dramatically imagining his own Viking funeral, Mark gets interrupted by a melodious series chuckle from his right (You know that noise Hyuck makes when he chokes on his giggles? No? Just Mark? Cool.)

“Haechan you hurt me, dear.” Jaemin’s stupidly princely voice rings in Mark's ears and he finds himself gripping the steering controls a bit tighter. 

“Oh please! As if that would ever make sense. I expected more from that brain of yours, your highness...” Hyuck teases, rolling his eyes but still laughing along. Donghyuck’s started calling Jaemin that a lot more often, it makes Mark feel pretty nauseous (also to be fair it is still unproven that Jaemin even has a brain, but a lack of one would not be surprising). 

The door of the cockpit swings open, hitting the wall with enough force to remind Mark to buy those little door stop things, for the cockpit (they already have one for Hyuck’s room, easier to do that than try to break him of the habit of slamming doors). 

“I knew your dumbass was up here, Jaem. Jisung needs you!” Renjun chimes in from the doorway and Mark thanks anything that can hear him for his appearance.

“There’s no need to be rude, you only had to ask!” Jaemin begins to whine, standing up to meet him at the door. 

“Don’t start to catch an attitude with me-“ Renjun raises his voice, but thankfully the vague sounds of them bickering trailed the hallway until they completely disappeared. 

Donghyuck grows quiet after this, letting out a content sigh as he lounged in his claimed chair to Mark's right (close enough to make sure Mark doesn’t fall asleep while driving again, and also close enough to change the music when Mark is busy and hold it over his head). The next track off of Mark’s mix fills the cockpit, sending the beginning chords of David Bowie’s Starman throughout the cockpit. It’s nostalgic sounding, peaceful even, still, Mark grows uncomfortable with the silence surrounding him. 

“So Jaemin, huh?” Mark looks over his shoulder, his voice just a little too dark with tension to be as teasing as he intended it to be (way to just give it away, idiot). 

“What about him?” Donghyuck asks nonchalantly, twirling a strand of his silver hair around his index finger. Of course, the only time Mark actually wants him to talk donghyuck seems to clamp up. 

“Nothing, I guess I just didn’t know you two... got along like that-.” Mark fumbled over his words slightly but was gracefully interrupted.

“Like what? Friends?” Donghyuck leaned forwards in his chair, resting his chin in his hands. Mark hates it when Donghyuck does this, stares at him when he’s driving. Hyuck’s stare is always the right amount of unnerving and warm, it's familiar but always… challenging. Mark doesn’t feel necessarily judged, just observed. Like almost everything Donghyuck does, it’s weird but so so so endearing. 

“I mean if that’s what you call the grease fest I was hearing.” Mark counters, shrugging his shoulders in a very bad attempt of nonchalance. 

“He’s not that bad, Mark. don’t be obtuse!” Donghyuck huffs out a breath, crossing his arms. 

“I'm just observing!” 

“Well, it’s entirely unfounded! You’re only- wait, what’s the word Johnny uses?” Donghyuck cuts himself off out loud again, an old habit of his from back when he was just getting used to his recruitment with Neo Culture. (“The language transfer I got from Mark works to a satisfactory level, but some words are still hard” Hyuck chimed up to Taeyong, who stroked his hair with fondness, the faint sound of whirring gears a soothing reminder of his presence. “How do those transfers work for your species, Haechan. I’ve always been curious?” Mark promptly choked on his Pepsi and vowed to never let Hyuck talk to his dad outside of his direct supervision).

“How the hell would I-“ 

“JEALOUS!” Donghyuck cuts him off, practically jumping out of his chair, making a show of waving his arms exaggeratingly. Well shit… who told him that? Mark definitely had to shut this down, it’s hard to win an argument with Donghyuck, even if Hyuck is undeniably wrong. 

“Me?” Mark stole a look over at him, trying his best to look incredulous. “About what?” 

“Oh do not pretend you weren’t about to die-“ 

“Of pure cringe maybe!! seriously Jaemin is sooo a double grilled cheese sandwich. How do you even flirt with him with no shame?”

“Mark, please. You’ve said it yourself I ‘literally flirt with anyone.’” Donghyuck began, mimicking Mark’s voice by pinching his nose and pitching his voice down. Asshole. 

“And literally anyone would be a better choice than Jaemin. You could practically pick anyone else on the ship but him.” Mark tried his best to divert from the topic but his cheeks were burning up (not in the literal way that Donghyuck’s do when he’s embarrassed which is just another bit of daydream fuel for Mark). 

“I don’t know about that. I only get the utmost undivided attention from Jaemin… Renjun is catty, Jeno is physically gorgeous but strange, forget it with the kids, but you Mark, really?” That all too familiar teasing lilt was there again. Donghyuck had to know that was going to rile him up. This had to be yet another part of the seven cycle long master plan to make Mark lose his goddamn mind. 

“I’m your best friend!” Mark huffed defensively. 

“I mean I guess…” Donghyuck cut himself off, falling into giggles. Mark totally felt his blood pressure rise.

“You’re horrible to me, Donghyuck.” 

“I sure am!” 

“What did I ever do to you to deserve this. Is this about that time I tied you to the cot because that was really funny…”

“You really have no idea?” 

Mark paused, confused. Wait, is something actually wrong? It’s not that Donghyuck has been acting that strange lately but maybe…

“I guess you don’t know everything about me, captain” Hyuck’s sarcastic tone assuaged some of Mark’s fears, but he wasn’t safe for long, as he got no warning before Donghyuck slowly rose from his chair stepped over towards Mark. Oh, this is very bad. Very, very, very bad.

Mark saw two foreseeable paths in the future for this predicament, Hyuck is either going to straight up punch Mark in the face for his troubles or Jaemin and Renjun are going to jump out from behind his chair and this will be an elaborate joke, and Mark would be publicly humiliated once more. 

Donghyuck was almost completely silent now, and unfortunately enough for Mark, they’ve finally gotten to a smooth point in their sailing, so Mark has no excuse not to ignore the stars outside and meet Hyuck’s gaze.

Mark objectively knows that Donghyuck is gorgeous, but it still hits him every single time they lock eyes just how completely ethereal he looks. In the low light of the cockpit, his amber eyes seem to hold all the stars in the galaxy, and mark feels weak in front of him again as hyuck shuffles around in between Mark’s seat and the controls, effectively obscuring the view out of the window, but fuck if he isn’t the most gorgeous view Mark’s ever seen. Almost absentmindedly, he reaches out for Donghyuck and clasps a tan, warm hand in his. Donghyuck finally cracks a smile at him, squeezing Mark’s hand reassuringly. He looks… nervous, and if it seemed like before it wasn’t possible for Mark’s heart rate to increase anymore, he continues to defy expectations. 

“Hyuck-” Mark chokes out, tilting his head up further to meet his gaze. “Is everything ok?”

Donghyuck blinks at him for a few seconds before taking in a deep breath. “You know what, fuck it” His grip is stronger now, and as the ending chords of starman play, Mark watches him with wide eyes. 

Mark is not ashamed to admit he’s a romantic person by nature, but there’s nothing involving mindlessly day-dreaming in asteroid fields that could have prepared him for this. he’s stiffened up, but Hyuck seems to notice (like he always does with these things) and he hums lowly, shaking his head. Mark adjusts himself so he’s sitting up, nervously drumming his free hand on the metal armrests. The awkwardness is all of a sudden too real, and Mark can’t help but let out a snort. Donghyuck rolls his eyes, still smiling, but then Donghyuck is back to business. He drops Mark’s hand, only to place his arms around Mark’s shoulders. They lock eyes again and Hyuck cups Mark’s cheek with one hand, tracing his fingers along Mark’s jawline before Donghyuck tilts his face upwards and closes the distance between them. 

Hyuck doesn’t kiss like a prince or an alien warrior. He doesn’t kiss with the spunk that usually twinges his voice or the snide comments that he makes under his breath when he thinks Mark isn’t listening. Instead, he kisses like a summer morning on Terra. Unlike sailing across galaxies, Donghyuck kisses like being back on the ship after a long day, like walks to the training room after hours, and like Donghyuck’s true nature. This isn’t the usual playful flirting or petty squabbling that their usual repertoire consists of, it’s gentle, it’s comfortable. It’s... right. Donghyuck pulls back after a minute or two, still hovering over Mark . His blinks at Mark, obviously taking in the sight in front of him judging by his growing smile. 

It’s silent, the arm Mark has around Hyuck’s waist feels heavy, but Mark doesn’t have much more time to think before Hyuck snuck his hand away from Mark’s jaw. He please pinched Mark's cheek roughly and stuck out his tongue before practically jumping off of him and scurrying off to god knows where. 

Some things really don’t change. Received is still spelled weird. Moose still roam the wild in Canada. But independently of Mark’s grammatical preferences, Donghyuck still pisses Mark off...

and Mark is so completely in love with him.


End file.
